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Achieving Balance with Open Academics and Secure Networks

Colleges and universities must strike a delicate balance between maintaining an open-access technology culture, where students can connect to the network with a vast array of personal devices, and the need to protect their network, resources and reputation.

When you consider the fact universities have a wide – and often fluctuating – number of people who require network access (students, faculty, staff, visiting professors/students and researchers) along with the explosive success and continued growth of the smart phone and tablet market – which has suddenly increased the number of devices on campus that require network access – it is clear that the only way to accommodate a university IT environment is by maintaining open network access.The question then becomes, how are you going to secure it?

Good news:this balance can be struck.By implementing a well thought-out system of network access control and identity management, along with the incorporation of best practices, universities can have their cake and eat it to.A robust NAC solution ensures that only the right users have access to the right information from the right place at the right time.By knowing exactly who is on the network and being able to set rules for admission to the network, the university has complete visibility and control of their wireless network.

View our recorded web seminar where we partnered with our customer, St. Edward’s University, to discuss the topic of how to “protect your network and institution in an open-access culture”.We address:

·Best practices for enabling open access

·How to instill a culture of user accountability and how that protects the institution

·How to implement role-based and network access controls

·How to monitor network activity in real time

Also, be sure to visit us at Educause, booth # 637 where we will demonstrate how our Enterasys NAC and our newly announced OneFabric approach can provide you with an open-access culture while maintaining network control and security through user accountability.